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I wish Madonna would just stop with wanting work with the current popular pop stars. I mean within the last 5 years or so she's collaborated with more musicians than she had in 20 years... Justin, Nicki, Lil Wayne, MIA, Pharrell, Timbaland... And now maybe Adele? I do like the idea of her stepping away from generic dance music but I want classic ballads with heart not ballads like I Fucked Up or Masterpiece.

I wish Madonna would just stop with wanting work with the current popular pop stars. I mean within the last 5 years or so she's collaborated with more musicians than she had in 20 years... Justin, Nicki, Lil Wayne, MIA, Pharrell, Timbaland... And now maybe Adele? I do like the idea of her stepping away from generic dance music but I want classic ballads with heart not ballads like I Fucked Up or Masterpiece.

I definitely do not want a heavy-ballad album. No more than 3 is good so long as they're quality. What I'd like is a more organic, live sound and something to get excited about. I don't know what kind of sound that is, but I want it to have urgency.

I doubt a full ballads album is in the cards. Madonna has always been about dance music in some way or another so I'm sure her next venture will incorporate that too, but if there's something more paused and emotional, I won't be the one throwing rocks.

^"paused and emotional" is a great descriptor of what I'd love for this next album. Write with Adele and Patrick Leonard all you want, Madge. I just hope the results are songs with a palpable emotional connection. She sounds so absent on MDNA.

Emotional connection, that's exactly it. Not that I didn't feel one with all of her albums, but it's just been a little on the thin side with the last three. I hope she can find the right balance between emotionally driven songs and interesting electronic music (if that is what she's still aiming for), like she did between 1998 and 2003 especially. I wish she would work with Stromae

guardian article about the rumors:

Madonna – ditch the leotard and embrace the ballad
Madge? Adele? Singing ballads together? It might sound like a strange combination, but I'd welcome a change of pace

In vogue … Madonna is reportedly to produce an album of ballads with Adele. Photograph: Richard Young / Rex Features
Reports suggesting that Madonna is planning to enlist Adele to write an album of "grown-up ballads" are likely to be met with a protracted groan from much of her fanbase, and I can see why. She's the woman responsible for Vogue, Like a Prayer and Ray of Light, so shouldn't she leave Adele songs to, you know, Adele? I'm a fan myself, and usually the prospect of a bangers-free Madonna album would fill me with dread too. But this time it's different.

I've always loved Madonna. I loved her as an obnoxious street urchin; I loved her as a gold-toothed dominatrix. I even loved her as a goth. But in recent years, I fear that she may have lost her way: I refer to this period as "the leotard era". It's become a cliche to call her the queen of reinvention, but for the last few years her career has become increasingly reliant on slutdropping to half-arsed EDM. I can't say I've revelled in this current blip, which has seen her flash a nipple at concerts in Paris and Istanbul for reasons best known to only her, release a song charmingly titled Gang Bang and – I can still barely bring myself to believe that this actually happened – perform with LMFAO.

It's not that I think she's too old for such nonsense (she's Madonna!) and not because it's unladylike or unsightly (she's Madonna!). The reason that I haven't got on board with this era is because as a fan I can't help but worry that it's stunts such as these that have begun to trivialise her own legacy.

When she proudly displayed her bits during the Erotica/Sex period it felt like she had something to say, however muddled the message. But when she thrusts her crotch at the camera these days, it feels like the opposite is true.

Of course, it would be farcical to be outraged at an artist famed for taking her clothes off for taking her clothes off; it's just that post-American Life it feels like her staunch commitment to exposing her naked form has become more about her than her audience. Worst of all, this approach has become boring. In the past she's been criticised for favouring style over substance, but anyone who's been paying even vague attention knows that she's released some of the most innovative, life-affirming and danceable pop music of the last 30 years. Admittedly, even the leotard era has yielded some great moments – Confessions on a Dancefloor was great – but it has since seen diminishing returns. I'm sad to have witnessed the reinventions drying up, and to a significant extent the music with them.

For most of her career Madonna has been ahead of the curve, so it's been an uncomfortable sight watching her chase a hit by any means, whether it be by trying her hand at hip-hop, dueting with Justin Timberlake and Nicki Minaj or chanting "My sugar is raw, sticky and sweet" with all the subtlety of Lee Ryan inviting two D-listers to join him for a threesome. Saddest of all, it hasn't worked. By her own standards, the albums haven't sold.

I'd hate to see her release an album of ballads just because that's what she's convinced will sell in a post-Adele world, or to pacify a public who believe an older woman's place in pop is standing next to a piano looking forlorn. But equally, some of her best pop moments, from Live to Tell to The Power of Goodbye, have been ballads. At this point, I'd welcome a change of pace. Changes of pace are what Madonna does (did?) best.

Of course, it's not really any of my business if she wants to pop a nipple out every now and then. I just hope that she hasn't forgotten all those other amazing things she's capable of. Come on, Madge. Give us Frozen, part two. Preferably without a video that features you doing the splits in a black tanga brief, surrounded by baffled crows in the desert.

Yes please! I remember when that track first was aired on mtv and it sort of stunned me and my friends. It was the talk of the town, so to speak. I wouldn't mind an album of ballads or slower songs (like Frozen is a slow track), as long as it finally steers away from trying-to-hard-to-be-young thing she's got going now, which to me really isn't really working.

It's frustrating, if there was one woman who could've shown the world it was okay to age naturally(albeit on strict training regimes etc etc) and still rule, it was Madonna. RoL was the perfect setup for this. And what does she do? She gets the plastics, keeps flashing her tits and swapping one toyboy for the other. It's such a freaking waste of a good opportunity So yeah, something more mature, intelligent and elegant would do for me.

I don't trust the rumors. I honestly don't think she's working on anything right now. Wasn't she supposed to do a movie first or something? And I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't be posting a ton of in-the-studio selfies on Instagram if she actually was recording.

Good point. But IIRC she's not required to release the CDs if she doesn't want to, although she won't receive the (around US$20 million) advances for each record if she doesn't.

And even if she does record the other 2 albums, she signed her contract in late 2007, so one CD in late 2014 (in this case I'm wrong for assuming it won't happen this year)/early 2015 and one in early 2018 could happen.

Although there was the live MDNA tour album that could also count as an album for Live Nation.

I didn't realize the details of that contract were ever made public. It's surprising to me that there were.
As for MDNA tour album, I doubt it would count as it was hardly marketed. Live Nation didn't do anything about it as I'm sure they didn't expect to sell much of it.

I don't trust the rumors. I honestly don't think she's working on anything right now. Wasn't she supposed to do a movie first or something? And I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't be posting a ton of in-the-studio selfies on Instagram if she actually was recording.